The Golden time

Reasons to care about the NBA playoffs

by

Need a reason to care about the NBA playoffs, which began April 16 without the Milwaukee Bucks? Look no further than the defending champion Golden State Warriors — a team that rewrote basketball history all season long.

Golden State won 73 games (and lost only nine!), breaking by one game a cherished record for most wins set by Michael Jordan’s 1995-96 Chicago Bulls. The Warriors didn’t lose until their 25th game of the season, when the Bucks (the Bucks!) beat them in December during probably the greatest thriller at the BMO Harris Bradley Center in years.

The Warriors, led by likeable guard Stephen Curry, surprised absolutely nobody by grounding the Houston Rockets, 104-78, in the first game of a first-round best-of-seven Western Conference Playoffs series that could be over by the time you read this. Curry outscored Houston by himself in the first quarter but injured his right ankle in the second quarter. He barely played in the second half, leaving even non-NBA fans discussing the what-ifs should Curry miss more action.

Speaking of playing time, former Wisconsin Badger and now Rockets rookie Sam Dekker was placed on the inactive list with back tightness for the Warriors series. Injuries limited Dekker’s productivity this season, and he appeared in only a handful of games.

But another former Badger, 2015 Big Ten Player of the Year Frank Kaminsky, is in the NBA playoffs — with the Charlotte Hornets, who face the Miami Heat in a best-of-seven Eastern Conference playoffs series.

As for the Bucks? Well, they finished last in the Eastern Conference’s Central Division and lost 40 more games than Golden State. Yet the season still had its highlights: Milwaukee beat the Los Angeles Lakers in Kobe Bryant’s last game at the Bradley Center, head coach Jason Kidd was suspended for one game without pay in November for slapping the ball out of an official’s hand, and highly touted second-year forward Jabari Parker is finally starting to live up to expectations after overcoming injuries that plagued him as a rookie. Plus, the Bucks’ future in Milwaukee is no longer up in the air; a new and controversial $524 million arena is expected to open in 2018.

Thanks to the NBA allowing more than half the league into the playoffs — 16 of 30 teams — and stretching first-round matchups to a possible seven games each, the NBA Finals won’t even begin until June 2. That’s another six weeks! Though some are ready to crown Golden State right now, anything can happen.